Scan
George Mason University
Score
46/100
13 of 51 tests pass · 54 points still on the table
Weak
AI crawlers are turned away before they reach the content, so nothing else on this page has had a chance to matter.
Do these three first
The fastest 11 points on this scan
CDN and WAF do not silently reject AI crawlers
6 of 8 AI user-agents are rejected or challenged at the edge.
Do this: Stop rejecting AI crawlers at the CDN or WAF.
Content Signals declared in robots.txt
No Content-Signal line in robots.txt. Missing: search, ai-input, ai-train.
Do this: Declare a Content Signals position in robots.txt.
Vertical-specific schema types
1 of 4 expected higher-ed types are present: CollegeOrUniversity. Missing: Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, EducationEvent.
Do this: Model the site's higher-ed content with the right types.
Nine dimensions, most to least left on the table
32 pages crawled
- www.gmu.edu
- www.gmu.edu/academics
- www.gmu.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs
- www.gmu.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/honors-college
- www.gmu.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/undergraduate-research
- www.gmu.edu/academics/graduate-programs
- www.gmu.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools
- www.gmu.edu/academics/study-abroad
- www.gmu.edu/academics/mason-online
- www.gmu.edu/academics/smithsonian-mason-school-conservation
- www.gmu.edu/academics/smithsonian-mason-school-conservation/smsc-academic-programs
- www.gmu.edu/internships
- www.gmu.edu/academics/teaching-and-learning
- www.gmu.edu/academics/accessibility-resources
- www.gmu.edu/academics/university-libraries
- www.gmu.edu/academics/continuing-and-professional-education
- www.gmu.edu/academics/gateway
- www.gmu.edu/admissions-aid
- www.gmu.edu/admissions-aid/request-information
- www.gmu.edu/admissions-aid/visit-explore
- www.gmu.edu/freshman
- www.gmu.edu/transfer
- www.gmu.edu/graduate
- www.gmu.edu/non-degree
- www.gmu.edu/international
- www.gmu.edu/pre-college-programs
- www.gmu.edu/financial-aid
- www.gmu.edu/research
- www.gmu.edu/research/research-centers
- www.gmu.edu/grandchallenge
- www.gmu.edu/grandchallenge/education
- www.gmu.edu/grandchallenge/climate
Every test · all 67 tests, in order
67 of 67 showing
AIR-1.1 Can AI crawlers reach your site? PASS 5 pt
All 10 AI agents may fetch content paths.
Your robots.txt file tells crawlers what they may read. A line left behind by a previous site or a copied template can quietly shut out the assistants people now use to find you.
AIR-1.2 Does your CDN let AI crawlers through?6 of 8 AI user-agents are rejected or challenged at the edge. PROBLEM +5
6 of 8 AI user-agents are rejected or challenged at the edge.
Even when robots.txt says yes, a firewall or bot-protection rule can turn assistants away before they reach your pages. We sent a request as each one and recorded what came back.
AIR-1.3 Is your page readable without a security challenge? PASS 1 pt
No interactive challenges on 32 sampled read-only pages.
A CAPTCHA or bot check on an ordinary page stops an assistant at the door. These belong on forms and logins, not on pages anyone can read.
AIR-1.4 Have you stated what AI may do with your content?No Content-Signal line in robots.txt. Missing: search, ai-input, ai-train. PROBLEM +3
No Content-Signal line in robots.txt. Missing: search, ai-input, ai-train.
There is now a machine-readable way to say whether AI may search, quote or train on your material. Having a position — any position — is the point.
AIR-1.5 Can a person read your AI policy?robots.txt carries a 241-character comment, too thin to read as a policy statement. NEEDS WORK +0
robots.txt carries a 241-character comment, too thin to read as a policy statement.
A few plain sentences in robots.txt saying what you permit. Journalists and lawyers read this file, and right now most sites say nothing.
AIR-1.6 Are you allowing assistants to quote you? PASS 1 pt
No noarchive, nosnippet or max-snippet:0 directives found.
Some sites carry old settings that tell search engines not to show excerpts. Those same settings stop an assistant quoting your page in an answer.
AIR-1.7 Does this page declare its real address? PASS 2 pt
97% of sampled pages emit a valid, self-consistent canonical. 1 have problems.
A canonical link tells a machine which URL is the true one. Without it the same content can be treated as several competing pages.
AIR-1.8 Is your page structured so a machine can follow it?0% of sampled pages carry one main element, a wrapping article or section, and a nav. 30 exceed 12 divs per semantic element. PROBLEM +2
0% of sampled pages carry one main element, a wrapping article or section, and a nav. 30 exceed 12 divs per semantic element.
Meaningful sections rather than an undifferentiated wall of containers. It is the difference between a document and a soup of boxes.
AIR-1.9 Do your headings tell a clear story? PASS 2 pt
97% of sampled pages have exactly one non-empty h1 and no skipped heading levels. 1 skip a level.
One main heading, then sub-headings in order. Assistants use headings to work out what a page is about and which part answers a question.
AIR-1.10 Do you publish a guide for AI assistants?/llms.txt returns HTTP 404. PROBLEM +2
/llms.txt returns HTTP 404.
A file at /llms.txt listing your most important pages. It is early and cheap, and it forces a useful conversation about what actually matters on your site.
AIR-1.11 Can a machine tell what your organization is?2 of 10 entity nodes carry an @id (20%). The WebPage to WebSite to Organization chain is broken at WebPage->WebSite, WebSite->Organization. PROBLEM +1
2 of 10 entity nodes carry an @id (20%). The WebPage to WebSite to Organization chain is broken at WebPage->WebSite, WebSite->Organization.
Structured data that links together — your organization, your site, this page — rather than a scattering of disconnected labels.
AIR-1.12 Can a machine be certain it is you?No sameAs links were found on Organization or Person nodes. PROBLEM +2
No sameAs links were found on Organization or Person nodes.
Links from your markup to authoritative records like Wikidata or ROR. Without one, an assistant is guessing which organization of your name it has found.
AIR-1.13 Can a machine find out who you are?0 of 7 organizational facts are present in the Organization markup: none. PROBLEM +2
0 of 7 organizational facts are present in the Organization markup: none.
Founding date, leadership, address, contact details, legal identifiers. Thin About pages are the most common weakness we see.
AIR-2.1 Primary content is present without JavaScript PASS 6 pt
Raw HTML contains 100% of rendered text on average across 32 URLs. The worst template is /: 100% across 1 pages.
AIR-2.2 Progressive disclosure content ships in the initial HTML PASS 2 pt
2 of 2 pages ship every disclosure panel populated in the raw HTML. 21 pages load more content on scroll with no paginated fallback.
AIR-2.3 Real data tables with header cells1 tables: 0 complete, 1 without scope on header cells, 0 with no header cells, 0 used for layout. NEEDS WORK +1
1 tables: 0 complete, 1 without scope on header cells, 0 with no header cells, 0 used for layout.
AIR-2.4 Stable, human-readable anchor IDs on section headings10 of 303 subheadings carry a slug-like id (3%); 18 have generated or unstable ids. NEEDS WORK +1
10 of 303 subheadings carry a slug-like id (3%); 18 have generated or unstable ids.
AIR-2.5 Alt text on content images, empty alt on decorative223 of 316 images carry appropriate alt text: 27 have no alt attribute, 0 use the filename. NEEDS WORK +0
223 of 316 images carry appropriate alt text: 27 have no alt attribute, 0 use the filename.
AIR-2.6 Key facts exist as HTML text, not only in images or PDFs7 of 32 sampled pages are thin relative to their images or lead with a document download. NEEDS WORK +0
7 of 32 sampled pages are thin relative to their images or lead with a document download.
AIR-3.1 JSON-LD is generated from mapped fields, not hardcodedSchema values track visible content across 0 templates. NEEDS WORK +1
Schema values track visible content across 0 templates.
AIR-3.2 BreadcrumbList on every page below the homepage3% of pages below the homepage carry a BreadcrumbList with at least two steps. PROBLEM +1
3% of pages below the homepage carry a BreadcrumbList with at least two steps.
AIR-3.3 Vertical-specific schema types1 of 4 expected higher-ed types are present: CollegeOrUniversity. Missing: Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, EducationEvent. PROBLEM +3
1 of 4 expected higher-ed types are present: CollegeOrUniversity. Missing: Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, EducationEvent.
AIR-3.5 isAccessibleForFree, about, and mentions with entity references0 of 32 substantive pages declare isAccessibleForFree; 0 reference subject entities by identifier. PROBLEM +1
0 of 32 substantive pages declare isAccessibleForFree; 0 reference subject entities by identifier.
AIR-3.8 Schema validation of the structured data on the page PASS 2 pt
14 nodes across 32 pages parse, carry what their types require, and hold well-formed values.
AIR-4.4 Correct X-Robots-Tag on non-HTML resources0 of 25 non-HTML resources carry an X-Robots-Tag. PROBLEM +1
AIR-4.5 Missing pages return 404 or 410 PASS 1 pt
0 of 10 deliberately invalid URLs returned HTTP 200.
AIR-4.6 Redirects resolve in a single hop PASS 1 pt
1 of 32 sampled URLs redirect.
AIR-4.8 Sitemap lastmod reflects real content changes PASS 2 pt
9021 of 9021 sitemap URLs carry a lastmod across 1539 distinct dates; 3% share 2022-08-16.
AIR-4.9 Sitemap index split by type, with media sitemaps PASS 1 pt
An index with 5 child sitemaps covering 9021 URLs, with no image or video sitemap.
AIR-5.1 Author entity pages with credentialsNo Person entities appear anywhere in the sample. PROBLEM +2
AIR-5.2 Bylines linked to author entities0 of 31 substantive pages reference an author by @id; 0 carry a bare string; 31 are unsigned. PROBLEM +2
0 of 31 substantive pages reference an author by @id; 0 carry a bare string; 31 are unsigned.
AIR-5.4 datePublished and dateModified are accurate0 of 32 pages carry a publication or modification date across 0 distinct dateModified values. PROBLEM +2
0 of 32 pages carry a publication or modification date across 0 distinct dateModified values.
AIR-6.4 No captchas on browse, search, or filter interactions PASS 2 pt
0 of 3 search or filter surfaces return a challenge.
AIR-7.1 Markdown companion for every canonical page0 of 24 sampled pages have a Markdown companion at {path}.md returning a Markdown content type. PROBLEM +2
0 of 24 sampled pages have a Markdown companion at {path}.md returning a Markdown content type.
AIR-7.3 Accept: text/markdown content negotiation0 of 25 URLs serve Markdown for Accept: text/markdown. PROBLEM +2
LI-1 HowTo on procedural contentNo procedural content in the sample. NOT SCORED —
LI-2 speakable on summaries and ledesNo speakable specification found on any sampled page. NOT SCORED —
LI-3 IndexNow fires on publish and updateNo IndexNow key file was discoverable. The file is named after the key, which is not published, so this is 'not discoverable' rather than proof of absence. NOT SCORED —
No IndexNow key file was discoverable. The file is named after the key, which is not published, so this is 'not discoverable' rather than proof of absence.
LI-4 Editorial policy page referenced via publishingPrinciples0 of 2 Organization nodes reference publishingPrinciples. NOT SCORED —
LI-5 NLWeb endpoint exposed as an MCP server with an ask methodNo NLWeb endpoint was discoverable. NOT SCORED —
LI-6 Domain MCP server over real content APIsNo domain MCP server or tool descriptor was discoverable. NOT SCORED —
BP-3 GA4 channel group for AI assistant referrersWhether a channel group exists for AI assistant referrers is not visible from outside. Analytics presence is; the grouping is not. NOT SCORED —
Whether a channel group exists for AI assistant referrers is not visible from outside. Analytics presence is; the grouping is not.
BP-4 Server-side tagging captures stripped referrersReconciliation between server-side and client-side numbers has to be attested. NOT SCORED —
Reconciliation between server-side and client-side numbers has to be attested.
BP-5 Access log retention with a queryable storeLog retention and queryability are not observable from outside the site. NOT SCORED —
Log retention and queryability are not observable from outside the site.
BP-7 Fixed prompt panel run monthly across modelsAnswer-share tracking happens outside the site and must be attested. NOT SCORED —
Answer-share tracking happens outside the site and must be attested.
BP-8 Extraction-fidelity baseline capturedNo extraction-fidelity baseline is captured by this version of the scanner, which makes no live model calls. NOT SCORED —
No extraction-fidelity baseline is captured by this version of the scanner, which makes no live model calls.
BP-9 Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools verifiedNeither Search Console nor Bing Webmaster Tools verification was found. NOT SCORED —
Neither Search Console nor Bing Webmaster Tools verification was found.
Not applicable — 26 tests answered with a dash, excluded from the score: AIR-3.4, AIR-3.6, AIR-3.7, AIR-4.1, AIR-4.2, AIR-4.3, AIR-4.7, AIR-4.10, AIR-5.3, AIR-5.5, AIR-5.6, AIR-6.1, AIR-6.2, AIR-6.3, AIR-7.2, AIR-7.4, LI-1, LI-7, BP-1, BP-2, BP-3, BP-4, BP-5, BP-6, BP-7, BP-8.
By dimension
Where George Mason University's 46 came from. Open a line to see its tests, worst first.
1 · Primary Indicators 12 of 30 12 40
AIR-1.2 Does your CDN let AI crawlers through?6 of 8 AI user-agents are rejected or challenged at the edge. PROBLEM
6 of 8 AI user-agents are rejected or challenged at the edge.
Even when robots.txt says yes, a firewall or bot-protection rule can turn assistants away before they reach your pages. We sent a request as each one and recorded what came back.
AIR-1.4 Have you stated what AI may do with your content?No Content-Signal line in robots.txt. Missing: search, ai-input, ai-train. PROBLEM
No Content-Signal line in robots.txt. Missing: search, ai-input, ai-train.
There is now a machine-readable way to say whether AI may search, quote or train on your material. Having a position — any position — is the point.
AIR-1.8 Is your page structured so a machine can follow it?0% of sampled pages carry one main element, a wrapping article or section, and a nav. 30 exceed 12 divs per semantic element. PROBLEM
0% of sampled pages carry one main element, a wrapping article or section, and a nav. 30 exceed 12 divs per semantic element.
Meaningful sections rather than an undifferentiated wall of containers. It is the difference between a document and a soup of boxes.
AIR-1.10 Do you publish a guide for AI assistants?/llms.txt returns HTTP 404. PROBLEM
/llms.txt returns HTTP 404.
A file at /llms.txt listing your most important pages. It is early and cheap, and it forces a useful conversation about what actually matters on your site.
AIR-1.11 Can a machine tell what your organization is?2 of 10 entity nodes carry an @id (20%). The WebPage to WebSite to Organization chain is broken at WebPage->WebSite, WebSite->Organization. PROBLEM
2 of 10 entity nodes carry an @id (20%). The WebPage to WebSite to Organization chain is broken at WebPage->WebSite, WebSite->Organization.
Structured data that links together — your organization, your site, this page — rather than a scattering of disconnected labels.
AIR-1.12 Can a machine be certain it is you?No sameAs links were found on Organization or Person nodes. PROBLEM
No sameAs links were found on Organization or Person nodes.
Links from your markup to authoritative records like Wikidata or ROR. Without one, an assistant is guessing which organization of your name it has found.
AIR-1.13 Can a machine find out who you are?0 of 7 organizational facts are present in the Organization markup: none. PROBLEM
0 of 7 organizational facts are present in the Organization markup: none.
Founding date, leadership, address, contact details, legal identifiers. Thin About pages are the most common weakness we see.
AIR-1.5 Can a person read your AI policy?robots.txt carries a 241-character comment, too thin to read as a policy statement. NEEDS WORK
robots.txt carries a 241-character comment, too thin to read as a policy statement.
A few plain sentences in robots.txt saying what you permit. Journalists and lawyers read this file, and right now most sites say nothing.
Full marks — 5 pass
AIR-1.1 Can AI crawlers reach your site? PASS
All 10 AI agents may fetch content paths.
Your robots.txt file tells crawlers what they may read. A line left behind by a previous site or a copied template can quietly shut out the assistants people now use to find you.
AIR-1.3 Is your page readable without a security challenge? PASS
No interactive challenges on 32 sampled read-only pages.
A CAPTCHA or bot check on an ordinary page stops an assistant at the door. These belong on forms and logins, not on pages anyone can read.
AIR-1.6 Are you allowing assistants to quote you? PASS
No noarchive, nosnippet or max-snippet:0 directives found.
Some sites carry old settings that tell search engines not to show excerpts. Those same settings stop an assistant quoting your page in an answer.
AIR-1.7 Does this page declare its real address? PASS
97% of sampled pages emit a valid, self-consistent canonical. 1 have problems.
A canonical link tells a machine which URL is the true one. Without it the same content can be treated as several competing pages.
AIR-1.9 Do your headings tell a clear story? PASS
97% of sampled pages have exactly one non-empty h1 and no skipped heading levels. 1 skip a level.
One main heading, then sub-headings in order. Assistants use headings to work out what a page is about and which part answers a question.
2 · Rendering and Extraction 11 of 15 11 73
AIR-2.3 Real data tables with header cells1 tables: 0 complete, 1 without scope on header cells, 0 with no header cells, 0 used for layout. NEEDS WORK
1 tables: 0 complete, 1 without scope on header cells, 0 with no header cells, 0 used for layout.
AIR-2.4 Stable, human-readable anchor IDs on section headings10 of 303 subheadings carry a slug-like id (3%); 18 have generated or unstable ids. NEEDS WORK
10 of 303 subheadings carry a slug-like id (3%); 18 have generated or unstable ids.
AIR-2.5 Alt text on content images, empty alt on decorative223 of 316 images carry appropriate alt text: 27 have no alt attribute, 0 use the filename. NEEDS WORK
223 of 316 images carry appropriate alt text: 27 have no alt attribute, 0 use the filename.
AIR-2.6 Key facts exist as HTML text, not only in images or PDFs7 of 32 sampled pages are thin relative to their images or lead with a document download. NEEDS WORK
7 of 32 sampled pages are thin relative to their images or lead with a document download.
Full marks — 2 pass
AIR-2.1 Primary content is present without JavaScript PASS
Raw HTML contains 100% of rendered text on average across 32 URLs. The worst template is /: 100% across 1 pages.
AIR-2.2 Progressive disclosure content ships in the initial HTML PASS
2 of 2 pages ship every disclosure panel populated in the raw HTML. 21 pages load more content on scroll with no paginated fallback.
3 · Structured Data and the Entity Graph 5 of 15 5 33
AIR-3.2 BreadcrumbList on every page below the homepage3% of pages below the homepage carry a BreadcrumbList with at least two steps. PROBLEM
3% of pages below the homepage carry a BreadcrumbList with at least two steps.
AIR-3.3 Vertical-specific schema types1 of 4 expected higher-ed types are present: CollegeOrUniversity. Missing: Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, EducationEvent. PROBLEM
1 of 4 expected higher-ed types are present: CollegeOrUniversity. Missing: Course, EducationalOccupationalProgram, EducationEvent.
AIR-3.5 isAccessibleForFree, about, and mentions with entity references0 of 32 substantive pages declare isAccessibleForFree; 0 reference subject entities by identifier. PROBLEM
0 of 32 substantive pages declare isAccessibleForFree; 0 reference subject entities by identifier.
AIR-3.1 JSON-LD is generated from mapped fields, not hardcodedSchema values track visible content across 0 templates. NEEDS WORK
Schema values track visible content across 0 templates.
Full marks — 1 pass
AIR-3.8 Schema validation of the structured data on the page PASS
14 nodes across 32 pages parse, carry what their types require, and hold well-formed values.
4 · Crawl, Index and Licensing Hygiene 4 of 12 4 33
AIR-4.4 Correct X-Robots-Tag on non-HTML resources0 of 25 non-HTML resources carry an X-Robots-Tag. PROBLEM
Full marks — 4 pass
AIR-4.5 Missing pages return 404 or 410 PASS
0 of 10 deliberately invalid URLs returned HTTP 200.
AIR-4.6 Redirects resolve in a single hop PASS
1 of 32 sampled URLs redirect.
AIR-4.8 Sitemap lastmod reflects real content changes PASS
9021 of 9021 sitemap URLs carry a lastmod across 1539 distinct dates; 3% share 2022-08-16.
AIR-4.9 Sitemap index split by type, with media sitemaps PASS
An index with 5 child sitemaps covering 9021 URLs, with no image or video sitemap.
5 · Authorship, Provenance, Freshness 0 of 12 0 0
AIR-5.1 Author entity pages with credentialsNo Person entities appear anywhere in the sample. PROBLEM
AIR-5.2 Bylines linked to author entities0 of 31 substantive pages reference an author by @id; 0 carry a bare string; 31 are unsigned. PROBLEM
0 of 31 substantive pages reference an author by @id; 0 carry a bare string; 31 are unsigned.
AIR-5.4 datePublished and dateModified are accurate0 of 32 pages carry a publication or modification date across 0 distinct dateModified values. PROBLEM
0 of 32 pages carry a publication or modification date across 0 distinct dateModified values.
6 · Agent Interfaces 2 of 8 2 25
Full marks — 1 pass
AIR-6.4 No captchas on browse, search, or filter interactions PASS
0 of 3 search or filter surfaces return a challenge.
7 · Alternate Representations 0 of 8 0 0
AIR-7.1 Markdown companion for every canonical page0 of 24 sampled pages have a Markdown companion at {path}.md returning a Markdown content type. PROBLEM
0 of 24 sampled pages have a Markdown companion at {path}.md returning a Markdown content type.
AIR-7.3 Accept: text/markdown content negotiation0 of 25 URLs serve Markdown for Accept: text/markdown. PROBLEM
What was read
32 pages, sampled from this site's own sitemap and internal links. The cap is 32 — a ceiling, not a certainty: a site with fewer reachable pages yields fewer.
32 other pages, all 200, by template
The receipt
- Cohort
- universities
- Source
- IPEDS HD2023 (institutional characteristics) and DRVEF2023 (enrollment) (National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2023-fall)
- Index
- 11.0, in effect 2026-09-24
- Scanner
- 0.1.0
- Scanned
- 2026-09-20T05:59:40.906933+00:00
- Result hash
- 1b405cafc6d92a12abea6107b844a4d2cfaf6aea3d0b61276c138d31863b1807
- Basis
- public-interest census: a declared bot with a published policy at https://readinessindex.io/bot, honoring robots.txt addressed to AIRBot, reading public pages only. No per-site permission was sought or given.
The hash is the SHA-256 of the full
result.json, recorded when the scan finished rather than
computed now. The raw evidence behind every line above — every
response, cached — is retained and is a median 1.5 MB per site, so
it is not served from here. Ask
us for it if you want to check a number against the bytes it came
from.
Think this is wrong? It might be. Tell us at hello@readinessindex.io and we will look, correct it if it is, and say so publicly either way.
Is your site ready for AI?
Scan a page, get a number you can verify. Free.
About these numbers. Points are whole numbers everywhere on this page. The arithmetic behind them is not — a test scores its weight times its band divided by four, so a row can earn 1.5 points and print as 2. Scores are computed from the exact figures and rounded once, at the end, never from the rounded rows. That means adding the points column up will not give you the score exactly. The rule is published in the standard.